different between subvert vs deface

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English subverten, from Old French subvertir, from Latin subvert? (“to overthrow”, literally “to underturn, turn from beneath”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /s?b?v??t/
• (US) enPR: s?bvûrt?, IPA^(key): /s?b?v?t/
• Rhymes: -??(?)t

Verb

subvert (third-person singular simple present subverts, present participle subverting, simple past and past participle subverted)

1. (transitive) To overturn from the foundation; to overthrow; to ruin utterly.
   • , Book IV, Chapter XVIII

     This would be to subvert the principles and foundations of all knowledge.

2. (transitive) To pervert, as the mind, and turn it from the truth; to corrupt; to confound.

   A dictator stays in power only as long as he manages to subvert the will of his people.

3. (transitive) To upturn convention from the foundation by undermining it (literally, to turn from beneath).

Derived terms

• subversion
• subversive

Translations

Etymology 2

Back-formation from subvertising, by analogy with advert.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?bv??t/
• (US) enPR: s?b?vûrt, IPA^(key): /?s?bv?t/
• Rhymes: -??(r)t

Noun

subvert (plural subverts)

1. An advertisement created by subvertising.

Synonyms

• subvertisement

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English defacen, from Old French defacier, desfacier (“to mutilate, destroy, disfigure”), from des- (“away from”) (see dis-) + Vulgar Latin *facia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??fe?s/, /di??fe?s/
• Rhymes: -e?s

Verb

deface (third-person singular simple present defaces, present participle defacing, simple past and past participle defaced)

1. To damage or vandalize something, especially a surface, in a visible or conspicuous manner.
   • 1869: George Eliot, The Legend of Jubal

     That wondrous frame where melody began / Lay as a tomb defaced that no eye cared to scan.

2. To void or devalue; to nullify or degrade the face value of.

   He defaced the I.O.U. notes by scrawling "void" over them.

   • 1776: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

     One-and-twenty worn and defaced shillings, however, were considered as equivalent to a guinea, which perhaps, indeed, was worn and defaced too, but seldom so much so.

3. (heraldry, flags) To alter a coat of arms or a flag by adding an element to it.

   You get the Finnish state flag by defacing the national flag with the state coat of arms placed in the middle of the cross.

Synonyms

• (damage in a conspicuous way): disfigure, mar, obliterate, scar, vandalize
• (degrade the face value): cancel, devalue, nullify, void

Derived terms

• defacement

Translations

See also

• efface